Eugene & Marilyn Glick

Marilyn K. Glick, one of Indiana’s most generous philanthropists, died at her home Friday. She was 90.

Determined and driven to accomplish whatever project was at hand, she led civic groups, founded charitable programs, and gave generously to the causes she championed. To her husband, real estate magnate Gene Glick, she was the perfect partner – in family life and business, on the golf course and the dance floor. The couple celebrated their 65^th wedding anniversary January 7, 2012.

Together with her husband, Marilyn Glick funded the Glick Eye Institute at the Indiana University School of Medicine, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, the Indiana Authors Award, and a wide array of charitable projects benefiting the arts, education, public health, and aid organizations throughout Central Indiana.

Born March 8, 1922, she was the only child of Abraham Jacob Koffman of Detroit and Rose Budd Koffman of Indianapolis. Her early childhood was spent in a Detroit community filled with friendly neighbors, Good Humor ice-cream wagons, and hawking newsboys. The family worshiped at Congregation Shaarey Zedeck and spent summer days boating on Lake St. Clair.

Her father, who owned and managed rental properties, lost his savings in the 1929 stock market crash and died suddenly in 1933. Though still very young, Glick became the primary source of emotional and financial support for her mother. It was during this time that she learned to manage a household, cook, and stretch a dollar.

As a teen she moved with her mother to Indianapolis, where she graduated with honors from Shortridge High School in 1940. She completed advanced business courses and began a career at Indianapolis Life Insurance Company, where she rose from a clerk in the policy loan department to the head of the reinsurance department and secretary to the vice president.

Though life could be challenging during this time, she developed a determined and independent spirit, building close friendships, taking on leadership roles in civic and Jewish organizations, and facing the world with the belief that something better was always around the corner. An unexpected bridge game with a young WWII veteran in December 1945 proved to be that bright turning point in her life.

During their courtship, Gene and Marilyn took their respective nest eggs and began investing in real estate together. After their marriage in 1947, they founded what would become the Gene B. Glick Company, one of the largest privately held real estate development firms in the country. In the early days of the company, Gene ran the business while also holding down a day job at Peoples Bank in Indianapolis. Marilyn supervised their construction projects and was tenacious in securing scarce building materials.

Gene & Marilyn Wedding

Their new partnership coincided with the greatest housing boom in U.S. history, and by 1962, the company was the largest builder of single family homes in Indiana. During that same year, the company began developing apartment communities, which would become its sole focus in later years.

As the business grew and Glick became the mother of four girls, she transitioned to full-time parenting and community service. She made substantial personal leadership contributions to the Indiana State Symphony Society and its Young Audiences program, she was president of the Borinstein Home Guild (now Hooverwood Guild) from 1966-1968, and she founded People of Vision in 1981 to support Prevent Blindness Indiana.

This dedication to eye health culminated in the Glicks’ largest philanthropic grant to date, a $30 million gift to the Indiana University School of Medicine for the construction of its new Glick Eye Institute in Indianapolis. Marilyn Glick hoped that the Eye Institute would become a national center of research and development of new treatments to restore and preserve vision.

The bulk of the fortune the Glicks earned through their business has been used to fund civic projects and charitable organizations throughout Central Indiana. In 1982, the couple established the Eugene & Marilyn Glick Family Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the state. The pair also established The Glick Fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), and The Glick Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis. “Most of us see the Glick name attached to buildings around town, but what fewer people see is the way Gene and Marilyn’s vision is carried on by the next generation,” said Brian Payne, president of CICF. “In my experience, it’s rare to find a family with such a unified and generous approach to making our community a better place. What Marilyn has taught her children and grandchildren may be her most important legacy to Indianapolis.”

Jewish causes were a particular passion for Marilyn. She served on the boards of her Temple Sisterhood, the National Council of Jewish Women, and Hadassah – The Women’s Zionist Organization. She and Gene funded several projects and fellowships through the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem and have been major benefactors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis and its programs and services.

Glick began collecting glass art in the 1980s and was one of the nation’s most noted studio glass collectors. She cultivated what she referred to as her “addiction” by meeting artists, traveling to their studios, and immersing herself in studying the medium. Her private collection includes works by Dominick Labino, Harvey Littleton, Howard Ben Tré, Bertil Vallien, and Dale Chihuly. This love of art glass inspired the Glicks’ recent gift to Ball State University to construct its new Glick Center for Glass, a hot-glass studio and instruction center.

Her contributions to the arts community were recognized by Governor Evan Bayh, who appointed her to the Indiana Arts Commission in 1990, where she served for eight years. She received the Sagamore of the Wabash honor from Governor Frank O’Bannon in 1997, and she and her husband also received the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award in 2003. In 2011, she received honorary doctorates from both Ball State University and Indiana University.

As a young woman, Glick learned that she had been adopted, and in subsequent decades attempted to trace her roots, with little success. It wasn’t until the early ’90s that she discovered she had an older sister, Frances Ornstein Ellison. Though her sister had died in 1972, Glick was able to establish a relationship with her sister’s children.

Known as Bunny to her close friends, Marilyn Glick was a member of Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation. She is survived by her husband, Eugene B. Glick, and their four daughters: Marianne Glick (Mike Woods), Arlene Grande (Thomas), Alice Meshbane (Andrew), and Lynda Schwartz (Mark). She is also survived by her many grandchildren and three great grandchildren, as well as her niece and nephew.

A memorial service will take place Monday, March 26 at 10:00 am at Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, 6501 N. Meridian Street. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Glick Eye Institute at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Earlier this month, the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Family Foundation donated $5,000 to the American Red Cross for disaster relief.  Also, nonperishable food items will be collected until May 5 at the following Glick apartment communities: Fairington Columbus, Woodbridge Bloomington, Briarwood Columbus, and Ashley Pointe Evansville.

If you would like to donate funds to relief efforts, please consider making a gift to the American Red Cross. You may designate your donation to disaster relief or your local Red Cross chapter. Donate here.

The Gene B. Glick Company is sponsoring a team for the Indianapolis Race for the Cure event on Saturday, April 21. Please join us! The company’s donation, plus your $28 registration fee, will fund breast cancer research. Please note that even if you are unable to walk at the event, you can still support the Glick team by making a donation or registering to “Sleep In for the Cure.”

To register:

1. Go to the Komen site (http://www.komenindy.org/race/) and click on the REGISTER button
2. select “Join an Existing Team”
3. our team name is “Glick Cares”
4. fill out the registration form and pay your registration fee online

2012 Susan G. Komen Central Indiana Race for the Cure

Date: Saturday, April 21

Location: Military Park, downtown Indianapolis

Time: The Glick team will gather at 8:00 a.m. – details will be sent to participants

Distance: 5K (a one-mile family route is also available)

Registration deadline: if you register online by noon on Thursday, April 12, your T-shirt will be mailed to you; thereafter, you can pick up your shirt at the event

Questions: please contact our team captain, Lisa Kidwell (lkidwell@glickco.com)

Located at 1344 Viburnum Drive on the northside of Indianapolis, Greenbriar is a garden-style community for elderly and disabled residents. Built in 1979, it includes 121 one-bedroom apartment homes. The community will be managed by the Gene B. Glick Company.

Greenbriar sits just off the 86th Street shopping and dining corridor, and residents have access to free garden plots for cultivating their own vegetables and flowers.

Chad McMahon – Archer’s Pointe – Maintenance Supervisor of the Year
Jason Grimm – Archer’s Pointe – Maintenance Technician of the Year

Glick includes more than 100 apartment communities in 10 states. For the company’s 2011 holiday charity drive, each community was asked to support a nearby food pantry by collecting nonperishable food items. The drive lasted from November 7 to December 5, 2011. Five Glick communities with the best results earned a grant from the Eugene & Marilyn Glick Family Foundation. Grants range from $750 to $3,000. A $2,000 grant is awarded to the region with the best combined results.

1st place
Wesley Park: 13,165 items
Indian Village Church of God Food Bank
$3,000 grant from the Glick Family Foundation

2nd place
Fairington of South Bend: 8,722 items
Food Bank of Northern Indiana
$2,000 grant from the Glick Family Foundation

3rd place
Cambridge Square Marion: 3,000 items
Salvation Army Food Bank
$1,250 grant from the Glick Family Foundation

4th place
Carriage House Kendalville: 1,500 items
The Friendship Food Pantry
$1,000 grant from the Glick Family Foundation

5th place
Cambridge Square and Carriage House LaPorte: 1,245 items
Salvation Army Food Bank
$750 grant from the Glick Family Foundation

Winning region
Region 7, Cindy Bane
A Cup of Cold Water (in honor of Wesley Park)
$2,000 grant from the Glick Family Foundation

Located at 1200 Highway Avenue, Hathaway Court is a nine-story, high-rise community for elderly and disabled residents. Built in 1972, it includes 159 one-bedroom and studio apartment homes. The community will be managed by the Gene B. Glick Company.

“Hathaway is a great addition to our growing portfolio of quality affordable apartment communities,” said David Barrett, president and CEO of the Glick Housing Foundation. “The Cincinnati metro area is an important market, and Hathaway has an outstanding location on the Ohio River, with scenic views of the Cincinnati skyline. Our goal is to ensure it continues to be an important resource for those in need of housing assistance.”

Residents at 22 apartment communities owned and managed by the Gene B. Glick Company will now enjoy greater access to essential services thanks to $5.1 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD announced the grants as part of its Multifamily Housing Service Coordinator Program.

Located in Indiana, Georgia, Kentucky and Virginia, the 22 government-subsidized communities provide homes for elderly and disabled residents.  The grants will enable the hiring of one Service Coordinator for each community and will fund the positions for an initial three-year period, as well as provide for associated expenses.

Service Coordinators are responsible for assuring that elderly and disabled residents, especially those who are frail or at-risk, are linked to the specific supportive services they need to continue living independently in their own apartment homes. Service Coordinators will assess their needs and connect them to resources such as medical screenings, financial counseling, energy assistance, nutrition programs, and transportation.

“This is the second year in a row that Glick properties have been awarded these valuable grants,” said David Barrett, president and CEO of the Gene B. Glick Company. “We have a long history of helping our elderly and disabled residents get the services they need to thrive. These grants will allow us to do that in a much more meaningful and comprehensive way. We’re grateful for HUD’s ongoing commitment to this program.”

The following Glick communities received a 2011 HUD Service Coordinator grant:

INDIANA:
Fairington of Anderson
Wesley Park (Auburn)
Cambridge Square of Bedford
Cambridge Square of Beech Grove
Cambridge Square of Bloomington
Carriage House of Evansville
Fairington Apartments of Fort Wayne
Cambridge Square North (Indianapolis)
Carriage House of Glendale (Indianapolis)
Fairington Apartments of Lafayette
Cambridge Square of LaPorte
Cambridge Square of Marion               |
Cambridge Square of Muncie
Cambridge Square of Richmond
Jamestown Apartments of Seymour
Fairington Apartments of South Bend
Jamestown Square of Vincennes

GEORGIA:
Woods of Savannah

KENTUCKY:
Blairwood Apartments (Louisville)
Fairington Apartments (Louisville)

VIRGINIA:
Cambridge Square of Chesapeake
Fairington Apartments of Roanoke

Located at 139 Thompson Way in Perry Township, Thompson Village was built by Pedcor Companies in 1989 and includes 240 garden-style apartment units.  The community will be managed by the Gene B. Glick Company.

“Thompson Village is a well-established property in a great location,” said David Barrett, president and CEO of the Glick Housing Foundation. “It’s a great fit with our portfolio of communities and it will further the Housing Foundation’s mission of preserving quality affordable housing.”

Tikijian Associates served as broker for the transaction.

About the Gene B. Glick Family Housing Foundation
The Gene B. Glick Family Housing Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to developing, acquiring, and preserving quality affordable housing, a vital public resource. Its portfolio includes Hampton Court Apartments in Indianapolis; Loper Commons Apartments in Shelbyville, Ind.; Wesley Park Apartments in Auburn, Ind.; and Thompson Village Apartments.